Red Cross to Visit Guantanamo

The International Committee of the Red Cross plans to send a team to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, later this week to assess the situation after the suicides of three prisoners there.

Two Saudis and a Yemeni hanged themselves with sheets and clothes in their cells Saturday.

The ICRC is the only humanitarian agency allowed to visit Guantanamo and it has done so on a regular basis.

The deaths generated calls for other independent investigations Monday and for the closing of the facility. Attorneys for Guantanamo detainees want the U.S. to allow independent medical exams of the remaining prisoners. The human rights organization Amnesty International has called for a civilian-led independent probe.

And the European Union says it will raise the issue of closing Guantanamo with President Bush at a summit in Vienna next week.

The U.S. military says the more than 400 detainees are at Guantanamo because they waged war against the U.S. and continue to pose a threat.

President Bush has said he would like to close the prison facility, but he did not say when.